Here is the personal statement of an applicant admitted to UC Berkeley’s Masters in Financial Engineering program. For personal statement, UC Berkeley poses several questions to applicants, which the admissions committee expects to be answered in an essay form. UC Berkeley provides these personal statement prompts to encourage students to self-reflect and share their insights with the program.

The following essays are an example of a compelling story and reflect the original voice and personality of the applicant. Get inspiration from them and try incorporating their strengths into your personal statement.

Personal Statement Prompt 1

Please provide a statement regarding your experience in applying your quantitative skills to problem-solving in business or research settings. (250 words)

At PwC, I initiated the creation of PwC’s first fully automated valuation process for private and public companies. This consisted of creating industry-specific valuation templates using Python and VBA that used analyst report data and an API through Capital IQ to gather information from the MD&A section to give a complete valuation. The model performed an LBO, DCF, Comparable, and Transaction Analysis while using PwC valuation methodologies and industry expectations and thus became superior to generic templates. This solution saw significant savings for the firm and is now used by PwC throughout the world.

At BlackRock, I was responsible for developing a long/short pair trading strategy using every identifiable oligopoly. Initially, this required integration and cross-validation of multiple databases, including FactSet, Bloomberg, and Global Data, to evaluate their accuracy and relevance. Afterward, I took the project forward by measuring firms’ market power in oligopolies to determine industry influence. This required analyzing the financial data of every firm to determine its market share. Creating an efficient VBA Excel Macro, I collected data on over 540,000 firms to determine oligopolies for over 150 industry classifications. I also identified equities with a consistent pricing relationship using 10-year historical data to develop an algorithm using cointegration. Finally, I constructed a proprietary trading signal based on the mean reversion of the pairs using Python. The developed algorithm yielded a highly desirable annualized return of 33% during backtesting and continues to be implemented by the firm for live trading.

Personal Statement Prompt 2

Please discuss why you have decided to apply to the MFE at this time and what career path you intend to pursue post-MFE. (250 Words)

Post MFE, I aim to set up my own Quantitative Hedge Fund. Working as an Analyst for a Global Hedge Fund like BlackRock has provided me the baseline skill set to leverage through an advanced degree like Berkeley’s MFE to achieve my career aspirations.

Previously, I had co-founded a philanthropic Hedge Fund, The Michigan Students Asset Management, which aims to teach students the fundamentals of investing while donating generated returns to charitable causes. I hope to expand on our current operations with a new “for-profit” fund focusing on statistical arbitrage trading strategies.

At BlackRock, I was exposed to arbitrage trading strategies and developed algorithms using Python and VBA. With Berkeley’s MFE, I hope to improve my technical skills around asset pricing, general dimension reduction techniques, and ensemble methods critical to forming accurately priced derivatives.

I envision MFE allowing me to develop a more advanced and intuitive approach to data science problems, enabling me to manipulate large data sets and automate trading decisions and executions. In addition, courses like “deep learning” will allow me to understand machine learning and training neural networks. This will add new dimensions to my skill repertoire to assist in analyzing various data sets, including text, audio, and images.

With the exposure attained in the MFE, I can build on a solid base of previous experience to transition smoothly and confidently into my post-MFE goal of setting up my Quantitative Hedge. 

Personal Statement Prompt 3

Choose one of your volunteer activities and discuss it. (250 words)

In the summer, I had the opportunity to serve as a volunteer special education teacher in San Pedro, a rural village in Costa Rica. With little knowledge of my surroundings, a language barrier, and a lack of learning equipment, accommodating the students’ unique needs was a challenge. I was required to develop creative methods, constructing visual aids from cardboard pieces to make block numbers that I could refer to while teaching.

During this time, I realized that the school’s most significant need was functional wheelchairs, as most were broken or did not have enough wheels. After some research, I discovered that it would be practical to repurpose old bicycles into wheelchairs. The idea was very well received by the school staff, with one of the teachers volunteering to assist with the project, given his previous experience as a carpenter. As a team, we collated a list of materials and calculated an estimated cost of raw materials to be 15 000 Costa Rican Colons (significantly lower than the 60 000 market price). With the basic knowledge of operating power tools and a few days of trial and error, we could create a functional wheelchair unit that was feasible to replicate.

Overall, this experience was unlike any other, requiring me to push my creative boundaries in an unfamiliar environment. However, this resilience and commitment to quality are fundamental values that I continue applying to all my challenges.

Personal Statement Prompt 4

What do you view as a particular strength of yours? What do you view as a specific weakness? Would friends or family share your view? (250 words)

I believe perseverance in facing challenging circumstances through self-initiative is one of my greatest strengths. During a recent teaching experience in San Pedro, a rural village in Costa Rica, this strength of mine came to the fore. With little knowledge of my surroundings, a language barrier, and a lack of necessary equipment, teaching and accommodating the unique needs of the students posed an immense challenge. I was required to come up with creative methods, such as making a set of visual aids by cutting out cardboard pieces to make block numbers that I could refer to while teaching. I also made a significant impact by repurposing bicycles and old chairs to build over 20 wheelchairs for students. This perseverance has been integral to my personal and professional successes, which is why I believe my family and friends will concur with this view.

My biggest weakness has been spreading myself too thin due to my desire to acquire as much exposure and experience as possible. In my professional life, however, this led to a situation where I could not complete one of the many assignments despite working over 120 hours a week. This was the catalyst that triggered my desire to keep a constant open line of communication with my team regarding workload management to set attainable expectations. As a result, I have learned to prioritize tasks better and say “no” more frequently. I believe my friends and family would share this personal evolution.